A gray Honda Accord struck a woman in her 70s as she crossed Chatsworth Street near Louise Avenue in Granada Hills on the night of August 30, then sped off without stopping, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The crash happened at approximately 8:20 p.m., and Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics took the injured woman to a hospital. Detectives are now asking the public for help tracking down the driver.
Surveillance video released by the LAPD on Thursday shows the woman walking northbound across Chatsworth Street just behind another pedestrian when the eastbound Accord struck her and fled, according to footage detailed by MyNewsLA. The footage indicates that a second pedestrian was walking just ahead of the victim and narrowly avoided being struck as well. Police said the driver failed to stop or render aid, as reported by the Santa Monica Mirror, which first detailed the LAPD's public appeal for information. Video of the crash is posted on the Los Angeles Police Department's website as investigators work to identify the car and its driver.
A $25,000 Reward and a Tip Line
The city is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the driver's identification, apprehension, or conviction. That figure comes from the Hit-and-Run Reward Program Trust Fund the Los Angeles City Council created in 2015, which allows for rewards up to $25,000 in severe-injury cases and up to $50,000 in fatal ones, per LAPD Online. Anyone with information is asked to contact Officer Reyes of the Valley Traffic Division at 818-644-8114.
Whether the driver can even be identified remains an open question. Los Angeles sees roughly 7,500 injury-causing hit-and-run collisions every year, and the large majority of those drivers are never identified or apprehended, according to the Law Office of Michael E. Rubinstein. It's a grim backdrop for Valley Traffic Division detectives, who lean heavily on public tips and surveillance footage — like the clip released this week — to crack these cases.
Legal Exposure If the Driver Is Found
The pedestrian was crossing Chatsworth Street mid-block, from south to north, when she was hit. California's Freedom to Walk Act decriminalized safe mid-block crossings starting in 2023, but state law still requires pedestrians crossing outside a crosswalk to yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic under Vehicle Code § 21954, according to Compass Law Group. That yield obligation, however, doesn't erase the driver's legal duty to stop.
Under Vehicle Code § 20001, fleeing the scene of a crash that causes injury or death is a wobbler offense that can be charged as a felony, carrying up to four years in state prison and fines between $1,000 and $10,000, per Eisner Gorin LLP. California law requires drivers to stop and render aid regardless of who was at fault in the crash — meaning the decision to flee, rather than the collision itself, is what exposes the Accord's driver to the most serious potential charges.
Part of a Grim Pattern Across the Valley
The timing places this case inside a broader citywide push: the LAPD launched California's Pedestrian Safety Month this month, kicking off targeted enforcement on speeding and failure-to-yield violations. The department has reported 1,090 pedestrian traffic fatalities statewide in 2024, representing 28 percent of all California traffic deaths.
The numbers in Los Angeles specifically are just as stark. Citywide LAPD statistics show that traffic crashes killed 290 people in Los Angeles in 2025, more than 150 of them pedestrians — outpacing the city's homicide count for the third consecutive year, according to Steven M. Sweat Personal Injury Lawyers. A study of more than 204,000 Los Angeles County collisions between 2021 and 2025 found that 21 percent of crashes during early Sunday morning hours involve a driver who flees, per Jacoby & Meyers — though this crash happened Sunday evening rather than in those early morning hours.
Hoodline has reported on the High Injury Network before: roughly 6 percent of Los Angeles street miles account for about two-thirds of all severe pedestrian injuries and traffic deaths, per LADOT Vision Zero data. Chatsworth Street itself carries a grim history — the Los Angeles Times reported that a hit-and-run driver killed a 31-year-old pedestrian crossing that same street back in 1991, underscoring how long this stretch of the San Fernando Valley has posed a danger to people on foot.
This latest crash follows a string of recent Valley hit-and-runs that Hoodline has covered, including a Sylmar crash that injured an LAPD officer and a case on Roscoe Boulevard that struck two pedestrians. Anyone with information about the Chatsworth Street crash is urged to call Officer Reyes at the number listed above.
